Although the presence of other customers is an indispensable part of the service consumption experience, there is little work that investigates the role of other customers in the service recovery ...process and how this affects multiple actors in the service ecosystem. To address these gaps, this research uses a mixed-methods approach. Study 1 qualitatively content analyzes other customers’ participation in the recovery process. Study 2 tests support receiver’s perception and Study 3 examines the support giver’s perception using two 3 (other customer support: emotional, information, no support) × 2 (employee extra role behavior: in-role, extra role) between-subjects experimental designs. The research extends upon the customer interaction and service failure and recovery literature through qualitative and quantitative analysis of how other customers can support the service recovery process and act as a new type of recovery actor, which affects the service recovery evaluation, citizenship behavior, and behavioral intentions toward the firm.
Value destruction in exaggerated online reviews Baker, Melissa A.; Kim, Kawon
International journal of contemporary hospitality management,
04/2019, Letnik:
31, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the underlying motivations, attitudes and behaviors of exaggerated review posters and readers by examining the effect of review valence, emotional expression and ...language complexity on perceived poster, website and firm trustworthiness and subsequent behavioral intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
This research uses a mixed-method approach using the qualitative critical incident technique (CIT) and quantitative experimental design. Study 1 uses CIT to examine exaggerated online reviews from the poster perspective where Study 2 uses CIT to examine readers’ perceptions of exaggerated reviews. Study 3 conducts a between-subjects experimental design examining the impact of valence (positive vs negative) × emotion (low vs high) × language (vague vs detailed) on trustworthiness and behavior intention.
Findings
Results of the two qualitative studies (Study 1 and 2) find posters and readers use language complexity and emotions in exaggerated reviews. The results from the quantitative experimental design study (Study 3) find that language style and emotions influence customer perceptions of poster, website and firm trustworthiness, which also mediates the relationship between the qualitative aspects of review text on behavioral intentions.
Practical implications
The findings provide multiple practical implications on the prevalence of exaggerated online reviews and the importance of language and emotion in determining customer perceptions and behavioral intentions.
Originality/value
By focusing on both readers and posters in exaggerated eWOM, specific motivations, emotions and language, this research contributes to the literature of online reviews, customer misbehavior, trustworthiness, language use and value co-destruction in online environments.
Purpose
This study aims to use mixed methods to create a new conceptual framework to understand the unique characteristics of virtual tourism experiences (VTE), which has not been systemically ...examined.
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 uses topic modeling with Latent Dirichlet Allocation to analyze 91,609 online reviews from the Airbnb Experience platform. Study 2 uses content analysis of open-ended qualitative responses from VTE customers. The two studies together are used to build a new conceptual model.
Findings
Building upon the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) model and the experience economy, results present a new conceptual model and identify VTE as unique in terms of Stimulus (education, entertainment, esthetics, escapism and connection), Organism (experiencing synchronicity, telepresence, participation and customization, emotion) and Response (evaluation and behavioral responses). Given the uniqueness of VTE, the new construct of the virtual servicescape is incorporated, recognizing the host, the focal customer and other customers, and the technology as the four main components.
Practical implications
The proposed framework can be used to guide the design, development, and evaluation of VTE, including identifying the key considerations, engagement within the ecosystem and providing guidance to hosts and operators.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that systematically explores VTE and proposes the theoretical framework to comprehensively understand this new form of experience in sharing economy by combining the unique aspects of the stimulus, organism, response and virtual servicescape.
While customer-to-customer interactions are frequent in hospitality and tourism settings, very little research investigates the effects of other customers and other customer-generated service ...failures. Using the critical incident technique, this research builds on theory and provides important managerial implications in the areas of other customers, attributions, and service failure. Results find that customers experience emotions, including anger, frustration, and sympathy. In addition, even though customers attribute that the other customers are responsible for the failure, they still formed negative perceptions and behaviors toward the firm. Third, results find that management often did nothing to recover from the failure, which further exacerbated negative perceptions and behaviors.
Purpose
Customer incivility is commonplace across service industries. Yet, there is little that is known about how uncivil customers affect employees. The purpose of this study is to examine how ...uncivil customer interactions affect employees’ cynicism, depersonalization and job performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 uses the qualitative critical incident technique to content analyze employee perceptions of customer incivility and how it affects their job performance. Study 2 uses a 2 (incivility frequency: high vs low) × 2 (co-worker support: high vs low) × 2 (service rule commitment: high vs low) quasi-experimental between-subjects design.
Findings
Results find that there is a significant interaction effect of customer incivility frequency, co-worker emotional support and service rule commitment on employee cynicism and depersonalization, which leads to decreased job performance and more harmful experiences to other customers.
Practical implications
The findings provide practical implications on the importance of managing customer incivility, providing co-worker support and how this affects employee attitudes and service they deliver to other customers.
Originality/value
The results build upon the incivility, co-worker support and service rule commitment literature, conservation of resources theory, as well as identifying key variables core to hospitality and tourism research: cynicism and depersonalization that provide important implications for actions of tourism and hospitality firms.
Observer reactions to other customer incivility Kim, Youngsun Sean; Baker, Melissa A.
International journal of contemporary hospitality management,
04/2019, Letnik:
31, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
PurposeThis study aims to examine the observing customer’s reactions, namely, gratitude, loyalty to the employee and tipping intention while observing other customer incivility during another ...customer service failure and the frontline employee’s emotional labor strategy.Design/methodology/approachA 2 (emotional labor strategy: deep acting vs surface acting) by 2 (service consumption criticality: high vs low) experiment is used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results reveal that observing an employee’s deep acting emotional labor (vs surface acting) leads to a greater level of gratitude among the affected customers and promotes their tipping and loyalty to the employee. However, there is no significant interaction effect of service consumption criticality and emotional labor strategy on customer gratitude.Research limitations/implicationsThis research builds upon the social servicescape, customer misbehavior and emotional labor literature by examining previously untested relationships.Practical implicationsIn cases of other customer service failure, managers should effectively communicate to their employees how their emotional labor induces positive customer feedback. Currently, emotional labor is emphasized mostly regarding its negative effects on employees, but this research suggests that serving the recovery expectation of the affected customers, especially when it is served with authentic emotional displays, can promote increased tipping and loyalty behavior.Originality/valueNo research investigates customers’ emotional and behavioral reactions to employee emotional labor in the context of other customer service failure.
ABSTRACT
As a result of the dramatic increase in global population, food waste, and unsustainable practices, the United Nations urges the promotion of edible insects as an alternative food source. ...However, edible insects are perceived as an unappealing, disgusting food source despite the nutritional and sustainable advantages, especially among Westerners. Therefore, research is needed to bridge the gap between the call for examining alternative food sources and the marketing initiatives to improve purchasing behavior. This research draws upon information processing and risk perception theories to investigate reducing consumers’ negative perceptions toward edible insect food products. The first study examines the effect of image and description in a retail setting while the second study examines a restaurant setting. Results find that in retail settings image was the most significant in reducing perceptions of risk while in the restaurant setting menu description was most important. In addition, vague descriptions were more preferable to explicit descriptions in minimizing risk and increasing purchase intention. Finally, the research provides meaningful implications for the marketers who endeavor to promote alternative food products as well as any products that involve negative and unfamiliar perceptions.
Vaccine hesitancy and refusal are threats to sufficient response to the COVID-19 pandemic and public health efforts more broadly. We focus on personal characteristics, specifically personality, to ...explain what types of people are resistant to COVID-19 vaccination and how the influence of these traits changed as circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic evolved. We use a large survey of over 40,000 Canadians between November 2020 and July 2021 to examine the relationship between personality and vaccine hesitancy and refusal. We find that all five facets of the Big-5 (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and negative emotionality) are associated with COVID-19 vaccine refusal. Three facets (agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness) tended to decline in importance as the vaccination rate and COVID-19 cases grew. Two facets (extraversion and negative emotionality) maintained or increased in their importance as pandemic circumstances changed. This study highlights the influence of personal characteristics on vaccine hesitancy and refusal and the need for additional study on foundational explanations of these behaviors. It calls for additional research on the dynamics of personal characteristics in explaining vaccine hesitancy and refusal. The influence of personality may not be immutable.
•Language and ethnic appearance significantly affect perceptions of authenticity.•Language and ethnic appearance do not significantly affect customer perceptions of rapport.•Ethnic appearance of ...employees and other customers in the social servicescape affects the focal customers perceptions of authenticity and satisfaction.
Today’s environment is multiethnic and businesses try to attract customers to ethnic services. Both verbal elements, such as language spoken, and nonverbal elements, such as appearance and smile, influence customer perceptions. While some elements may be seen to increase perceptions of authenticity, others may come at the expense of perceived rapport. Therefore, this research investigates language spoken, ethnic appearance, and smile on customer perceptions of authenticity and rapport using two between-subjects experimental design studies. In addition, as employees and other customers in the social servicescape can affect the focal customers’ experience, this research examines both employee and other customer perceptions in the two separate studies. Results from the two studies find that ethnic appearance and smile significantly affect customer perceptions of authenticity and satisfaction. Language spoken by employees also significantly affects customers’ authenticity perceptions. Surprisingly, language use and ethnic appearance do not negatively affect perceptions of rapport.
Tangible cues are critical indicators of customer perceptions of authenticity and behavioral intentions. Few studies examine multiple dimensions of authenticity, the influence of language in service ...settings, and the effects of the service provider appearance. This research addresses these gaps by presenting two between-subjects experimental design studies, the first examines the tangible cues of menu presentation (menu item name and item description), and the second examines the tangible cues of the employee (ethnicity and name). Both measure customer perceptions of food, culture, and employee authenticity, customer revisit intentions, and willingness to pay more in an ethnic restaurant. Results find that using an ethnic menu name and possessing employees of referent ethnic origin have the largest impacts on customer perceptions of authenticity. Additionally, food authenticity has the largest impact on revisit intention and culture and employee authenticity have the largest impact on willingness to pay more.
